Acting White

“The Take Away” is an engaging news show aired on NPR. I began listening to it a while back when my youngest was in preschool. I had the rare opportunity to listen to it this morning and found the hosts’ discussion about education and culture stimulating. In light of Freedom Readers’ current work with African American children in low wealth communities, I thought our readers would find host Celeste Headlee’s blog interesting. If anyone has read Stuart Hall’s Acting White I’d love to know what you think of it.

What is ‘Acting White’?

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 – 08:39 AM

In this new book, “Acting White,” Stuart Buck has the guts to take on an issue that has marred Bill Cosby’s reputation and strained relations between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson. Buck is a white guy who adopted two brown kids, one from Haiti, and in his thoughtful, exhaustively researched book, I hear clearly the voice of a loving father.

This is not just a doctoral candidate at the University of Arkansas, not just a graduate from Harvard Law School. Buck’s children are 6 and 11. He sends them off to school everyday, as all parents do, knowing that he has no control over what may happen to them in the classroom or the playground. He can’t protect them from what other children say to them, or change the way they are seen by teachers. And Buck is concerned; that’s clear. He’s worried that there are forces working against his kids, forces beyond his control that will make the tough job of achieving in the classroom even tougher.

4 responses to “Acting White”

Very interesting article! I want to read Mr. Hall’s book. I also stumbled across this article while doing research for a totally unrelated case today: http://www.dolanmedia.com/view.cfm?recID=552049 which adds relevant local perspective.